Marine vessels, such as boats, typically include a network of interconnected components such as sensors and controllers to facilitate propulsion and steering functions and, in some cases, provide users information relating to the speed, heading, and route of the marine vessel. These interconnected components may include autopilot controllers that autonomously steer the marine vessel according to a selected route or maintain a current heading. To do so, the autopilot system may monitor the location and heading of the marine vessel as well as other types of feedback to steer the marine vessel and remain on course or maintain a current heading. In the event that manual steering of the marine vessel is desired while the autopilot is engaged, the captain may disable the autopilot before providing manual input and re-engage the autopilot afterwards to avoid conflicting inputs to a rudder of the marine vessel. This procedure may be disruptive, time-consuming and repetitive when frequent deviations from the autonomously-steered heading or course are required.
Some conventional autopilot systems are equipped with a feature to allow for a temporary override of the autopilot, which is facilitated by detecting when the captain has turned the helm wheel by a certain amount, allowing the captain to steer the marine vessel without disengaging the autopilot. However, such features require integration of various components with the steering and propulsion components and controls of the marine vessel. In particular, for hydraulic actuator steering systems, the flow of hydraulic fluid resulting from a user turning a hydraulic helm is measured by installing one or more hydraulic flow sensors plumbed in line with the marine vessel's hydraulic steering lines. In other types of systems (e.g., non-hydraulic systems), expensive sensor and control components may be wired into the existing network of interconnected components to detect helm movement or, alternatively, entire components need to be replaced or upgraded, to implement the functionality of overriding the autopilot.